Literary Devices in R.F. Burton's 1001 Nights

[108 fountains]

Burton uses a range of poetic devices - internal rhymes, alliteration, repetition, rhythm, along with vivid imagery - in his prose translation of The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night. My question is, for anyone who knows or is willing to hazard a guess, do the Arabic versions of these stories employ the same techniques or are they Burton's creations?

Some examples chosen at random:

…out of it a young lady to come was seen. White-skinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had been, or the sun raining lively sheen.

…silk broidered with gold and bordered with brocade

…I please this and provoke that and starve one and stuff another.

…I was wearied with the way, and yellow of face for weakness and want.

…a ruined heap wherein raven should croak and howlet hoot, and jackal and wolf harbor and loot.

[cacian]

hi Fountain
do you understand what the title actually mean?
The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night

[Calidore]

…out of it a young lady to come was seen.
[snip]
bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had been


Is Yoda-speak a literary device?

[108 fountains]

Hi Cacian,

Even the title itself has been translated in different ways, usually “The Thousand and One Nights” or “Arabian Nights.”

Anyway, the story behind the title is that the king of Persia, Shahriyar, after discovering the queen’s infidelity, has her executed and then he takes a new wife only to execute the new wife the next morning. He continues to marry a new wife (a virgin, I believe) every day only to have her executed in the morning. This continues until he marries Scheherazade, the daughter of one of his closest advisors. During the night, Scheherazade tells the king a story, but does not finish it and tells the king she only will finish telling the story the following night. The Shah agrees and lets her live another day. Next night, Scheherazade finishes the first story, and then starts a second story but also leaves that one “to be continued.” The king is so enthralled by the stories that he allows Scheherazade to continue to live day after day – for one thousand and one nights. If I remember correctly, after 1001 nights of story-telling, the Shah decides Scheherazade is a good and faithful wife after all, and they live happily ever after. There are hundreds of stories in the various collections of “The Thousand and One Nights,” but I don’t think there is any collection that actually has 1001 of them.


Hi Calidore,

Yeah, so much of the prose is written in that poetic style of inverted sentences, etc., that I wondered if Burton wrote it that way in order to capture the Arabic flavor or if that was his own invention. Translation is always a tricky business, and especially when converting Western to Eastern languages and vice versa, it’s really impossible to do word for word translation, which allows the translator some latitude. I’ve seen one other translation of the 1001 Nights, and it had nothing of the flowery language and poetic style of the Burton translation. (Also, I’m aware that the stories are a collection of folktales that come from all over the Middle East and South and Central Asia, so I don’t know that there is any single “Arabic version.”) I actually kind of like the “Yoda-speak,” and I wonder how much of the popularity of The Thousand and One Nights over the years is due to Burton’s style of writing/translation.

[Calidore]

I've had the Mardrus-mathers version for many years, though I've only ever read the first volume (of four). It was enjoyable, and I hope to finish them all someday.

There's a very good, detailed evaluation of the major English translations here:

http://mairangibay.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-translation-of-arabian-nights.html

[JCamilo]

Cacian,

there is a text that predates 1001 nights which were called 1000 nights. The text is only a index from a destroyed library, so there is only a basic description, and some consider that it may be a "prototype" of the 1001 nights, containing only the frame story. The text is called 1000 nights, therefore som may consider the "and one night" is a poetic way to describe the time, perhaps a more imprecise than a round number, thus more magical. Also, i have seen some formulas in oral tradition that count the time this way "a year and one day" ,etc.

108fountains:

arabic poetry employs all those techniques you mention, but the vivid description, Burton was well know for exagerating it a bit, specially adding more "sexual spice". He is also guilty of some attempts to add some exotic spice there.

And yes, there is several rolls with fragments of the 1001 nights" predating the european translations, and on those rolls never have 1001 nights, (almost all have only 300) and despite sharing several stories, no document has exactly the same tales and eve nights distribution. After the european translations (XIX century or so), some versions with full version were created, using stories of other collections.

1001 nights was popular , even in england, before Burton. Antonie Galland, the first version, was already a classic in XVIII century, even english writers like Wordsworth, Byron or Willaim Beckford had contact with 1001 nights.

[108 fountains]

Calidore,
Thanks very much for the link. It went a long way to help me know the history of the various translations, and also helped me understand my questions about the nature of Burton's translation - "He attempted to reproduce all aspects of the Arabic text: the passages in rhyming prose..." and "The real problem with Burton's 16 volumes, though, is the bizarre pseudo-English in which his translation was composed."

JCamilo,
Thank you for the concise history lesson, and your thoughts on exaggerations and his adding of "sexual spice." To me, the things that Burton seems to be most criticized for - his exaggeration, the sexual imagery, as well as the florid language and convoluted sentences - are what makes him fun to read.

The blogger in Calidore's link said, "...the sheer energy of his diction comes to beguile and enchant as much as it initially frustrate[s]...", and I would agree with that. I've only read a paperback version of extracts of Burton's translation, but I think I'll go back now and find the full version. I probably never read all 10 volumes and 6 supplemental volumes, but it would be nice to have them to read from whenever the urge arises.

[JCamilo]

A key element is that all classical translations are more or less classical translations, meaning they fixed some of arabic traits, because those traits were born from oral culture. There is broken lines, repetitions, improvisations in the arabic texts, stuff that most editors would clean out and old translators used to do, because they had no intent to preserve the original, but rather give a taste of what was expected to the public. Thus, most of them added elements, descriptive elements to what an european would expect in a oriental text that weren't present in the original, most because to them, all those stuff are more or less mundane. Burton translation has the trait to be also a critic to a previous translation, one that reduced a lot the sexual - violent content of the 1001 nights. Well worth to read the 1001 nights translations history.